


Timestamps - Fault Lines

by smiling_eyes



Series: Fault Lines [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Stalking, Timestamp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2019-10-18 11:57:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17580386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smiling_eyes/pseuds/smiling_eyes
Summary: A series of timestamps from the original work. Chapters are non-sequential.





	1. Obsession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place shortly after Steve joined the Navy, well before he was a SEAL.

Obsession

McGarrett looked around at the packed bar. Dozens of his shipmates filled the room, laughing and drinking. It wasn’t really his scene, but if he wanted to be a team leader, it meant getting to know his men and keeping them out of trouble. Painted ladies were draped over many of the enlisted men, and while he knew that at least some of them were of the “pay to play” variety, he also knew that after many, many months aboard a ship, it would be futile to try to talk the men out of any company they might find. Instead, he perched at his table with a few of the other non-commissioned officers and kept an eye on things. 

Twice, he’d had to intervene. The first was an almost-fight over a woman. After Steve got both men sat back down, the woman offered to accompany both of them, for a slight discount each. Steve really didn’t want to think about how that would work. The second was an argument over whose turn it was to pay for the next round, so Steve had offered to get the next if they’d calm down. By the time he got back to his own seat, two of his tablemates had left. 

The open seats were filled soon enough with sailors he didn’t recognize. Despite being on a closed ship, there were thousands of people and schedules meant you saw the same ones day after day. He toasted them with the full beer that miraculously appeared and with the next two as well. He’d paid for two of his own, then six for the rowdy group, so he figured that group was repaying the favor. Steve thought he was only on his fifth beer, but couldn’t be sure because his bottle never really seemed to empty. 

When he staggered on his way to the head, he figured he might want stop drinking, since he was there to stop trouble, not start his own. Back at his table, there was another full beer waiting for him though, and really, it would be rude to refuse.

When Steve woke up the next morning, he was in a hotel room he didn’t recognize. His head was pounding and even the dim light filtering in through the curtains was painful. After he’d taken a quick shower and rinsed his mouth out with soap – because there was no mouthwash or toothpaste and anything would be better than the rotten taste coating his tongue – he found his clothes and cursed a bit when he realized his ID and cash were gone. 

Trying to marshal his three functioning brain cells, he tried to remember the night before. He couldn’t have left his ID at the bar, because they weren’t carding anyone in uniform. The room was probably worth more cash than he was carrying, so he’d likely hooked up with one of the women who’d then taken his cash and ID when she was stuck with the bill, which at least meant he’d hooked up and not hooker’d up.


	2. The Watkins Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the Watkins Incident, alluded to in chapter 5 of Fault Lines.

God, Danny hated this guy. Twice he’d been in rendition as a suspect in two different smuggling investigations. He and Steve had never been able to make anything stick. This time though, they had him – video surveillance of him with two girls smuggled in from China, one of whom was found dead three days ago. 

As soon as John Watkins’ name had popped up in the investigation, Danny knew they were on the right track. When he saw the video of Watkins repeatedly kicking the now-dead girl when she dropped to the ground and refused to get up and follow him to the car, he stormed out the door with Kono and Chin running after him, leaving Lou to grab their new-hire Akamai Kekoa who was stowing away his customized Five-0 gear in a duffel. 

“Bring that shit with you. You’re getting baptized by fire. What a second day on the job.”

“I’m SWAT you know. I’ve seen you guys at work.”

“Oh please. You’re just a baby. I was SWAT captain, and I still didn’t know what I was getting into.”

“I thought McGarrett was the crazy one. I’ve read the reports.”

“You’ve read the sanitized reports that Danny wrote. McGarrett was a controlled kind of crazy. If you knew him, you could predict what he was about to do. Danny, however, is currently a lit fuse in search of a bomb.”

Grover shook his head at the new kid’s confused look.

“You aren’t even going to get to use your shiny new gun and TAC vest if you don’t get a move on. We gotta catch up before we miss the fun.” 

Keokoa snapped into gear at the word fun. He’d thought McGarrett was crazy, but he never stopped to consider the people who followed him into the mayhem. SWAT was intense, it was an adrenaline rush, but none of the men he’d served with had ever called live-fire fun. Less than an hour later, Kekoa was seriously considering quitting his new job.

Before they even arrived on scene, Kono was calling in that they were in pursuit of Watkins, who’d been getting in his car when they arrived at his home. He’d fled in a red late-model Mustang. 

“He’s headed your way Lou! Try to head him off. There are too many civilians if he gets to the main road!” In the background, he could hear squealing tires and Chin cursing. Danny however, was silent.

“I see him! If I block the road here, he’s got a ravine or this construction site to choose from. Either way, he’s trapped.” Lou was already jerking the wheel, bringing the SUV to a skidded halt across both lanes of the road. 

At the last moment, the Mustang turned and crashed through the chain link fencing surrounding an abandoned construction site, followed closely by Danny. Lou drove up to block the exit before jumping out to join the rest of Five-0 crouched behind Danny’s car. Kekoa heard 2 shots pop off before he even got the door closed.

“He’s barricaded in the office. He’s got at least one gun, but unless there was an arsenal in there, it's probably just the one. Before I could shoot him, he kicked in the door there.” 

“I’ll call SWAT for back-up.” Kekoa reached for his phone but was stopped by Chin’s hand on his arm.

“There's one guy with one gun. If you listen, you can hear sirens, so HPD is already on its way. We don’t need SWAT for this.” Before Kekoa could respond, he saw Danny tightening his TAC vest and standing up, hands raised. 

“Watkins! You know you aren’t getting out of it this time. Just come on out. It’s a lot of paperwork to replace the ammo we’d use to force you out. Not to mention the paperwork if we accidentally killed you. And honestly, this is my favorite blue shirt and I don’t want to risk getting blood on it. So just, just do everyone a favor and come on out with your hands raised.”

Kekoa tried to keep the shock off his face, again. This was what they called negotiation? He could practically hear the air quotes around ‘accidentally.’ When he turned to look, several HPD officers had pulled up, crouching behind Grover's SUV. Two were trying to convince a carload of teenagers who’d stopped as they were driving by to move along.

“Detective Williams? Is that you?” Watkins called back from inside the temporary office. “I didn’t know McGarrett let his little bitch do any of the talking. Where is he, man?”

Danny didn’t say a word. There was absolute silence like the wind itself didn’t dare breathe for a moment. He stepped back and opened the Camaro door for a moment, rummaging in the glove compartment. 

“You want McGarrett? I’ll give you McGarrett,” he yelled before firing and shattering one of the trailer windows and tossing a grenade inside. 

“What the actual fuck?!?” Watkins screamed as he ran full speed out of the trailer, throwing himself on the ground right as it exploded. Shards of glass rained down around him. When he tried to stagger to his feet, Danny pistol-whipped him.

“Stay down if you don’t want me to shoot you.” Watkins stayed down. Finally, Kono and Chin crept forward to cuff him.

“Son of a bitch. I got blood on my shirt,” was all Danny said as he walked away.


	3. Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This takes place during Chapter 1 of Fault Lines, after the accidental drug raid.

Steve stripped off his clothes and tossed them straight into the washer. Tromping through the forest and chasing after the one idiot who thought he could get away had left him covered in dirt so well, he swore he could feel it between his toes.

Starting the wash, he realized there was still a load in the dryer from earlier in the week and started it on a fluff cycle. He would fold it after a swim. This case was a whole different kind of stressful with Danny gone and Steve figured he’d be swimming a lot until Danny was home next week. Slipping on his trunks, he jogged down to the water, not wanting to waste the last few moments of light. 

Slicing through the water, he felt the tension drain out of his body. He knew the kids had been passing some stomach virus back and forth and they’d been lucky Danny hadn’t gotten it. He’d been making sure Danny got home early every night to spend time with them. Getting to see them yesterday morning, even if only for a few minutes, had really helped. Steve had wanted to stay with them, but Danny had worried that both of them would somehow end up catching the bug, and they couldn’t risk that. 

Coming back to shore, he wrapped the towel around his waist and left his boardies to dry on the lanai. He grabbed the warm clothes out of the dryer and trudged upstairs. Dumping the load on the bed, he sorted out the shirts and hung them in the closet. Next came the pants. When he opened the sock drawer to put Danny’s socks away, he rolled his eyes. The socks were at least paired up, but they were tossed all over. With a sigh, Steven reached in and started organizing the mess. 

Near the back of the drawer, he felt a box. Pulling it out, Steve collapsed on the bed when he realized what it was. His hand trembled slightly as he screwed up the courage to pry open the lid. 

Nestled inside were two rings. One a dark gunmetal grey with a brushed silver inlay, the other its exact opposite. He plucked the darker, slightly larger ring from the box and slipped it on his finger. For a moment he regretted teasing Kono about showing off her engagement ring. He ran his thumb over it, loving the look and the feel – the weight of it. 

He carefully took it off and replaced it, carefully mussing up the sock drawer again so Danny wouldn’t notice when he finally came home. 

Steve fell asleep that night dreaming of the day he’d get to say yes to that ring forever.


	4. Distractions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny meets Chesa.

The kids were finally asleep. It had taken hours longer than usual because every time he turned his back, one was sneaking out to watch the party. Well, Grace was trying to watch the party. He caught Charlie going for the dessert table twice. The live music still flowed through the house but he’d promised to take Grace shopping for a new dress on his next day off to keep her in her room, then read to Charlie until he was snoring, then read another chapter, just to make sure. 

Danny snuck downstairs and into the kitchen. Stan had hired caterers for this party, so there were lots of goodies in the kitchen ready to refill the circulating waiters and buffet table. The first thing he had done was down a beer in about three gulps. It hadn’t been a bad day, but it had been a long week. Every week was a long week these days. Danny grabbed a second beer. 

Kekoa and Destiny meshed with the team better than he’d ever hoped. Kekoa came from a long line of cops, so after a rocky first week, he’d settled in fine. It had taken longer to find, and keep, their 6th member. Three guys had washed out, despite their promising credentials. Marshall and Evans were former military and worked well in the field, but sucked at the research part of the job. Danny had fired both within two weeks of their start dates. Nixon lasted three weeks and two days before he called Kono a psychotic bitch for beating the hell out of a human-trafficking pedophile when they needed the location of the three missing kids he was smuggling from Asia to the mainland. 

Kono always took those cases hard, so she’d headed for the artillery range to shoot out some of the aggression. She’d ended up in a shouting match when the girl behind the counter had refused to give her a third batch of ammo. When Kono went back a few days later to apologize, she found out the girl had been fired because of the altercation. Third strike rule with the boss. When Kono tracked her down, she found out the girl was a former Marine who’d quit after her second tour because they wouldn’t let a girl handle the big guns. She spoke fluent Spanish and Mandarin, and despite her parents being the hippie dippy types, she had an extreme affinity for weaponry. She and Kono got on like a house on fire, and she’d fit in with the rest of the team too. 

Today had been her three-month review with the Governor. There were a lot of meetings with the Governor these days. He was pleased with the budget and how smoothly they were working with HPD and SWAT these days. He’d had to undergo a full psych eval after the Watkins thing, but that was more than understandable. Now he had weekly meetings with a therapist and twice-weekly meetings or phone calls with the Governor. The bureaucracy drained him and if he wasn’t careful, it made him miss Steve and how he’d run things. 

Danny finished off his second beer. The kitchen was still empty so he noshed his way through the multitude of covered pans and platters, sipping another beer as he went. Finally, he’d grabbed a plate and was filling it up to take back upstairs to his room when a tiny dark-haired woman burst through the door. 

“Oh! I’m sorry! I was just looking to see if you had anymore of the sweet potato empanadas. Whatever you put in them to make them savory instead of like a pie was absolutely amazing.”

“I haven’t seen any yet, but I’m not with the catering company. Sorry.” Danny grabbed another beer from the fridge, preparing to head back upstairs.

“Oh. If you aren’t a caterer, are you with the firm? I don’t remember seeing you before.” 

“Nope. I’m just down here grabbing a plate. I’ve got to get back upstairs and make sure Charlie doesn’t make a break for it again.” Danny motioned at the stairs. 

“Charlie? You mean Rachel and Stan’s son. I got here late and didn’t get to meet him. You must be the nanny.” She stuck out her hand as if to shake. 

“Nanny? No. I’m a cop and Rachel’s ex.” Danny smiled at the beautiful woman and put the plate down, reaching out to shake her proffered hand. 

“Chesa Dee, nice to meet you Officer Danny.”

“Detective actually, but Danny’s fine.” Danny heard a slight slur in his words. Beer on an empty stomach hadn’t been the best idea. 

“So. Rachel’s ex. It’s nice that you get along well enough to come help out with the kids for the party.” 

“They’re my kids. And I currently live here, so it’s more complicated than nice, maybe.”

“Complicated usually means lots and lots of paperwork.”

“Yeah, well, once upon a time, it was like that for us. Lots of paperwork and too many lawyers. These days it’s more about coordinating schedules than anything else.” 

“Well, that’s good. So, you’re single then, Detective Danny?” Danny suddenly realized that Chesa was still holding his hand. 

“Terminally, it seems.” Maybe it was the beer, or the fact that this tiny woman was almost the exact opposite of Steve, tiny, delicate, forward but not prying. He briefly found himself considering her. “I’m sorry, but I’m not up for a romantic relationship, Chesa, no matter how tempting you might be.”

“That’s perfect because neither am I, Detective.”


	5. Obsession pt 2

_I had a dog his name was Blue_

Steve’s head throbbed a half-beat out of time as they ran. Even after hours of sleep and plenty of hydration, the hangover would not go away. 

_Blue wanna be a seal too_

If he made it through SEAL training, Steve decided he wasn’t going out drinking anymore. He’d never been a big drinker, but over the last few years he’d blacked out and woken up with a monster hangover a handful of times. Like the night before last, he could remember having maybe a couple of extra beers, nowhere near enough to have blacked out and woken up in a random motel, again. 

_So I bought him a swim mask and four tiny fins_

And every time, when he woke up there was no sign of the girl(s) he must have hooked up with, but despite the awful hangovers, he was loose limbed like he’d gotten laid. He’d even checked the trashcans and never found so much as a spent condom. He sincerely hoped he didn’t have unknown kids running around somewhere. 

_And I towed him to the ocean and I threw him in_

A bunch of potential SEALs had gone out for one last hurrah before the grueling training. They thought they’d been smart to go the day before the day before, knowing full well they’d likely be woken up stupidly early to begin. And they had. It wasn’t even 0300 when they’d been dragged out of bed. 

_Blue came back to my surprise_

Yesterday, Steve had woken up in a motel and caught a cab back to base. He’d stayed awake long enough to shower, grab some lunch, and check his gear. Exhausted and hurting, he laid down for a nap that had lasted until their wake-up call, but he still felt like roadkill. 

_With a shark in his mouth and a gleam in his eyes_

Steve shook his head clear. Hangover or not, failure was not an option. Steve had already determined that nothing would make him ring that bell. Steve put the hangover and blackouts out of his mind, determined to start a new chapter in his life.

_I had a dog his name was Blue_  
_Blue wanna be a seal too_  
_So I bought him a swim mask and four tiny fins_  
_And I towed him to the ocean and I threw him in_  
_Blue came back to my surprise  
_ _With a shark in his mouth and a gleam in his eyes_


	6. The Short Straw

“No.”

“Danny, you’ve got 36 hours to get a handle on this.”

“I’m fine. It’s fine. Things are good.”

“You haven’t been fine in a long time, Danny.”

Danny sighed and sunk down in the passenger seat. Kono had ‘borrowed’ the Camaro and taken her keys with her, forcing Danny to get a ride home from Chin or hotwire her car. He’d seriously considered taking her car before realizing he wasn’t getting away from them - or this conversation - that easily. 

“Look, I can’t say I appreciate the meddling, but I understand why you and Kono and Lou feel the need to intervene. And maybe I’m glad you drew the short straw here. But really, Chin. I’m pretty good right now. Rachel decided it would be easier on Charlie if Chesa and I just live at the house with them, so I don’t have to find a new place. We have an appointment tomorrow so maybe we’ll finally find out if we’re having a girl or a boy. We have the luau at Kekoa’s tomorrow night. Things are working out fine.” 

“But now Steve is coming home.”

“That’s the fucking thing, Chin.” Danny swore a little louder than he would have liked. “Steve isn’t coming home. He’s coming back to Hawaii for a case, but he isn’t coming home. We know now that he didn’t cheat on me, but he still just god damned walked away. He walked away from Grace and Charlie, me. Charlie believes that Steve got re-deployed and is on a secret mission. Grace just -just- fucking stopped asking when he was coming home. Twelve days ago when we were on the way to the courthouse for the wedding, she asked if I was sure. I could tell she was still really hoping he would come back and fix things.”

“Does she know…?”

“No. Either you were going to ask if she knew why he left or that he was going to be here soon. No to both. I never told her what happened. She and Charlie worshipped Steve, so it was bad enough that they thought he hurt me by leaving, but to think that he hurt me then left. I couldn’t do that to them. And we just found out he’s on his way back. I haven’t had time to decide how or even if I’m going to tell them.”

“Would you let Steve see them?”

“I would at least give them the option. If he asks… I can argue and delay, but I’ve never been able to say no to Steve. Not once. The thing is, Chin, I can’t even give him the opportunity to ask.” Danny took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. “Look, I wasn’t completely lying when I said I was fine. I was finally getting to fine. Then this morning. Those photos, the victims. Seeing Steve on the monitor. I don’t know.”

“If you need to take the week off, we can...” 

“No!” Danny interrupted before Chin could finish the thought. “I need to work this one. You can take point on the case though. Be a buffer between me and Steve, because I honestly don’t know how I’m going to react to seeing him again.”

“Anything you need, Danny.”

“Yeah, I appreciate that. But while he is here, Steve is going to need you to have his back too. I can’t even begin to think about what this is doing to him. It’s one thing for me to be angry – to almost hate him – over all this, it is another to hate yourself. Back in Jersey, when Rachel left me, I was angry at her but I hated myself too. I wasn’t strong enough to keep our marriage together. I wasn’t enough for her, for our family. I had Matty to drag me through it, and Grace to keep me going. Right now, I don’t know that Steve has anyone in his corner.”

“We can be here for both of you.”

“I know. Just. Make sure he knows he is still a priority to you and Kono. He abandoned us, but he should know he still has ohana here, that he still has a choice to come home. Whatever parts of home are left.”

Danny realized they’d been sitting in Rachel and Stan’s driveway for goodness knows how long.

“Look, Chesa and I have an appointment with the OB/GYN tomorrow morning, so I’ll be late. She can drop me off at the office afterwards. Check back with the hospitals in the morning, see if they’ve identified any more potential victims. And maybe they’ve been able to get in touch with the ones we already know about. Talking to them might give us somewhere to start while we’re waiting for Steve. Have Lou do that actually. You and Kono can try to identify where the roofies came from.”

“What about Destiny and Kekoa?”

“She needs to study. We might not have made her go through the Academy, but she still needs to know protocol and procedure. Kekoa can do his job and liaise with SWAT. Have him set up a coordinated tactical drill. Multi-level. Maybe bring in the fire department. We haven’t run drills in a burning building in well over a year.”

“Those weren’t drills, Danny, those were Tuesdays.”

Danny chuckled softly as he exited the car. 

“Tomorrow,” he said, slapping the roof of the car as he slammed the door. 

Just his luck, right as he was almost able to look back on those days fondly, his world was about to get shaken to its foundations again. He shook his head and headed inside. Charlie would already be asleep, but Grace might still be awake. He needed a hug before explaining the situation to Chesa – something he had been avoiding for months.


	7. Breakfast in Bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while - but I thought we needed a reminder of happier times

He could hear giggling downstairs. He didn’t need to investigate though, and instead, turned to throw his arm over Danny who was still snoring lightly, dead to the world. 

After his swim, Steve had let Kono in and headed back to bed as she had woken up Charlie and Gracie, letting them preserve the idea that this was a surprise. 

Charlie was home from the hospital, permanently. The doctors had declared that he would make a full recovery, and he had adjusted well to the idea that he had a Daddy and a Danno and had even claimed himself a Papa Steve. 

It was Danny’s weekend with the kids and Charlie had decided they were going to make breakfast in bed for his Danno and Papa Steve, just like they did for Rachel on Mother’s Day. She had actually agreed that they could have them Wednesday night through Sunday morning if they would bring the kids back to celebrate Father’s Day with Stan too. It was still an awkward, tenuous situation, but everyone was trying. 

So Steve lay there, luxuriating in Danny’s sleepy warmth and listening to the kids downstairs, clanging around and no doubt making an unholy mess. Hopefully, Kono would help keep it contained so cleanup would be quick later. Grace had tried to insist that she could do it and they didn’t need help, but neither Danny nor Steve really wanted her watching her little brother and the stove, so reinforcements had been arranged. 

Yesterday, Steve and Danny had been kicked out, ordered to go pick up Stan’s Father’s Day gifts, which had actually been Danny’s idea in the first place. Rachel had given Grace a credit card a month ago in preparation. Everything was paid for and just waiting to be picked up. Grace had gone through family photos and found pictures of Rachel and Stan and the kids. Those photos had been scanned and put in an electronic photo frame to remind Stan that they were a family. The best picture of Stan and Charlie was taken to a studio who blew it up and textured it so that it looked like a painting. 

Charlie had picked a photo of Stan pushing him on the swing-set Stan had custom built in the backyard, shortly before Charlie had gotten sick. Charlie’s face was pure happiness and exhilaration, and Stan was looking at Charlie like he was both the sun and the moon. 

It had hurt Danny to see that picture and listen to Charlie babble about how much fun it was when Daddy pushed him on the “sings”, but that was partly how he knew it was the right one for the faux painting. 

So while they’d picked up Stan’s presents, Kono and the kids were plotting breakfast – a secret menu that Steve was a tiny bit nervous about. Back home, they’d grilled dinner and fed Kono for her troubles, while she giggled and teased them about breakfast. She’d told him to swim an extra lap or three as she’d left to go get the final ingredients.

Steve heard Charlie squealing downstairs and knowing how grouchy Danny was when he first woke up, he starting pressing soft kisses to his face to drag him out of sleep. Danny groused and flapped a hand at Steve.

“’S Sunday. Go ‘way. Sleeps.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to sleep through the surprise Grace and Charlie have prepared.”

“’Ace n’ Charlies?” Steve laughed softly at Danny’s groggy replies. 

“Yes, Danno. Charlie and Grace and Kono have been making a mess in the kitchen for the last hour, getting our surprise ready.” He leaned in for a kiss.

Just as Danny flipped over to try to deepen the kiss, their bedroom door flew open. 

“Danno! Papa Steve! Happy birthday!”

“Father’s Day, Charlie.” Grace failed to hold in her laughter at Charlie’s mistake. 

“Happy Father’s Day!” He clambered onto the bed and thrust two colorful (but oddly mismatched) leis at them. 

“Charlie couldn’t decide which flowers he liked best for the leis, so we used them all.” Kono grinned from the doorway, where she stood holding the heavily laden tray of food. Grace blessedly handed over a tray laden with mugs of coffee and juice when Charlie wriggled off the bed to grab Kono and haul her over with the food. The coffee tray went to Danno, of course, and the food tray was settled in front of Steve. 

He had to lift it a bit when Charlie launched himself back at the bed, settling between them. Grace stepped back to take a picture of them while Charlie pointed out all the different foods. Kono took a picture of Grace taking the picture of them – wanting to preserve Grace’s joy in the moment as well. 

Finally, Grace sat on the bed too, opposite of Charlie. 

“That’s as close as we could get to a pork roll, Danno. We called Grandma to see what you really liked, and we called everywhere but couldn’t find a Taylor ham on the island, but Grandma said it was ok as long as we used Kaiser rolls and not hamburger buns. And she said you liked yours with runny eggs. The other one is less runny because I didn’t think Steve would like that. Kono borrowed a cast iron skillet because we didn’t see one in the kitchen. And we have coconut syrup or maple syrup for the pancakes. Real maple syrup! And we put blueberries in the fruit salad because Grandma said you liked that too. Oh and we got malasadas for you and oatmeal for Steve but they didn’t fit on the trays. I’ll go get them!” She jumped up and dashed downstairs before anyone could get a word in or protest. 

Grace came back in carrying a bag of malasadas in one hand and the pot of coffee in the other, the oatmeal balancing in the crook of her elbow. Kono grabbed the coffee and put it on the nightstand beside Danny before blowing kisses at the kids and saying her goodbyes. Danny could just barely hear water running downstairs and realized she was cleaning up the mess before she left. He sipped his coffee and silently thanked his lucky stars for such an amazing ohana. 

By the time they’d dispersed the food between the trays, Charlie had snuggled into Danny’s side and started stealing blueberries out of the fruit salad. He made a face as he watched his father open up to take a huge bite of the pork roll, moaning happily as runny eggs came spilling out the side. Steve cut his pork roll in halves, then halved one again, offering a piece to both Charlie and Grace. 

“That’s New Jersey food, Charlie. You gotta know your roots. This almost makes me miss Jersey again.” Danny winked and grabbed for the bag of malasadas. “But only almost.” He shoved a whole one in his mouth and offered one to Charlie. They were definitely going to have to change the sheets after breakfast. 

The little family spent the next hour in bed, talking and laughing, with Grace snapping random pictures. Her personal favorite was one where Charlie was trying to spoon-feed the oatmeal to Steve and ended up pushing the mush up Steve’s nose instead. By the time they had to get ready to take Grace and Charlie home, Steve and Danny were stuffed full of carbs. 

On the way out the door, as they were grabbing Stan’s presents, Charlie suddenly dashed up the stairs to Grace’s room and returning with an envelope, which he thrust into Danny’s hands. 

Inside the envelope was a hand-drawn card – obviously Grace’s work – and colored by Charlie. Also in the envelope were two identical wallet-sized photos of the four of them. Danny remembers Steve taking the selfie of them the first weekend after they found out that Charlie was going to be okay – that the bone marrow transplant had been a complete success. 

Steve and Danny pulled the kids into a hug before each tucking a photo into their wallets.


End file.
